Hello, dear readers of the site! Astheno-neurotic syndrome is a mental disorder that occurs against the background of exhaustion of the nervous system. It belongs to the group of neuroses and is called «irritable fatigue» or neurasthenia.
We offer to find out in more detail by what signs it can be diagnosed, as well as how to cure it, and in general, due to what reasons it begins to develop.
Characterization
It is observed most often among people from 20 to 45 years old who seek to build a career, so to speak, to win their place in the sun. Why are they exposed to daily stress, tension.
The term «astheno-neurotic syndrome» itself was first used in the United States, after about 1984 people in Nevada in 200 sought medical help, presenting the same symptoms.
Everyone was worried about a lack of energy, a decrease in the feeling of satisfaction with their life and a bad mood along with insomnia.
It happens hypersthenic, which is characterized by outbursts of rage and irritability, as well as hyposthenic, when the state is, on the contrary, apathetic and depressive.
In the International Classification of Diseases of the 10th revision, abbreviated as ICD 10, it is in the class «Other neurotic disorders F48» and is coded «Neurasthenia F 48.0».
Symptoms
Physical
- Tension-type headache. By the way, this kind of pain is called the «helmet of a neurotic», because unpleasant sensations are located around the circumference of the head, as if encircling it. It comes from the top of the head and affects the occipital and parietal part of the head, the muscles of the face, neck and eyes. It happens as episodic, when it worries less than 15 times a month, and chronic, that is, worries more than 15 times a month. The duration of an attack is on average about 6 hours, but there are cases when a person suffers without interruption for several days, or even months, years.
- Fatigue. No matter how much a person slept or rested, he still experiences a breakdown. Recovery does not actually occur, the body does not replenish the supply of resources, but, on the contrary, wastes the remaining ones. Naturally, the energy is at zero, it is not enough even for the formation of desires.
- Increase in pressure.
- Insomnia. No matter how tired the patient is, he is simply unable to sleep in the evening. And if he succeeds after several hours of wallowing in bed, then he wakes up in the middle of the night due to nightmares or feelings of anxiety. Then he lies around until morning and falls asleep exhausted, feeling incredibly sleepy all day.
- Discomfort in the chest. It often seems to a neurasthenic that he has problems with his heart, which often began to bother him. In fact, these are pains of a neurotic nature, they are not harbingers of a heart attack or signs of any pathologies of the heart muscle.
- Enlargement of the lymph nodes, and, as a result, an increase in body temperature up to 37,4 ° C. Joints may ache and bones may break.
- Metabolic disorders that make themselves felt by a change in body weight. Basically, its loss, a person can lose several sizes in a short period of time, due to a complete lack of appetite. That is, he ceases to feel hungry at all. And, forgetting, and even refusing to commit violence against himself, he simply does not eat for days.
- Intolerance to transport, in which severe motion sickness.
Emotional and cognitive
- Irritability. It flares up like a match, instantly getting annoyed and swearing at those who were nearby. Moreover, any little thing that you would not have paid attention to before is capable of pissing you off.
- Loss of interest and desire. The patient is unable to think of what he wants and what can cheer him up. Indifference also arises towards people who were recently dear and dearly loved. This is even more depressing, because thoughts arise that he is a bad husband or father, and so on, if he does not feel anything in relation to his relatives.
- Pessimism. The future is seen in black colors, and the present, in principle, too. The ability to notice the good and believe that someday a bright streak will come in life is lost.
- Impotence. It seems to the neurotic that he is not capable of changing anything. He cannot force himself to rejoice, nor can he become energetic, active and passionate about some business. Why gradually thoughts come to mind that he is helpless and insignificant, and this only aggravates the course of the disease.
- Anxiety and restlessness. These sensations do not leave him, being present in the background in his chest. And he may not even realize why he is worried and worried. At least approximately. And the intensity of emotions at times is such that it literally blocks his breath. Especially in the event of a panic attack.
- Loss of sense of humor. Personal characteristics change. If earlier a person was sociable with an excellent sense of humor and the ability to find a way out of any awkward situation, then at the time of the onset of astheno-neurotic syndrome, he becomes unable to understand jokes and, moreover, it is appropriate to use them in his speech.
- Alcoholism and addiction to drugs. To relieve stress, such a person can use alcohol, which really relaxes for a while and helps to forget. But in this case, dependence on it gradually begins to form. After all, the neurasthenic does not know how else to cope with stress. The same is true with drugs and other illegal drugs.
- Attempts to change the place of residence, work, even marital status, thinking that this will help to «come alive» again. But, as a rule, changes do not bring the expected results, but only further drain.
- Limitation of social contacts. Not understanding what is happening to him and when it will pass, he simply tries to avoid communication with other people, even those close to him. Because he doesn’t have the energy to process the information received and, in general, to explain why he is in a bad mood and has become different from what he used to be. And in order not to have to deal with conflict situations and misunderstanding, condemnation, he comes to the conclusion that it is better and safer to simply isolate himself, “lock in” in himself.
Stages
The first stage is hypersthenic
The most common form. She is characterized by excitability and increased irritability. The danger is that a person at this stage does not notice that he is ill, in addition, he also denies if someone points out a change in his mood.
He becomes intolerant and breaks into a cry at the slightest irritation. Control over their behavior and reactions is weakening.
The concentration of attention and, accordingly, performance begins to decline. The psyche seems to weaken, and he becomes unable to withstand the stress. There is insomnia, due to which headaches, weakness, memory problems and a feeling of weakness appear.
The second stage is irritable weakness
If you do not seek help in a timely manner even at the first stage, then the disease becomes pathological, bringing a lot of difficulties to life.
For example, the inability to perform work tasks for some time can lead to dismissal. Or a person takes a vacation, but does not spend it the way he planned, constantly experiencing impotence, lethargy.
He loses interest in what he used to love, and just the thought that it is necessary to pull himself together and still complete some task leads to instant fatigue.
Also during this period, the neurasthenic becomes whiny and touchy. Any word threatens to hurt him, which is why people around him often feel awkward in communicating with him. Subsequently, they simply begin to avoid his company, which causes him even more pain and suffering.
The third stage is hyposthenic
During this period, the personality becomes completely passive, even amoebic. She has absolutely no energy to get out of bed in the morning, think about pressing matters and just do housework.
The body seems to fall into hibernation, in this way trying to recover. Which is basically what is happening. But, only having felt at least a little energy, the patient immediately begins to be active. And this leads to a deterioration in well-being, the syndrome takes on more serious forms.
Causes
In the second century BC, it was believed that the main cause of neurasthenia is a disorder of the hypochondrium. In fact, as you understand, this is not so. Let’s look at the most likely causes that provoke its development:
Exhaustion
Both physical and emotional. Modern man is exposed to a huge amount of stress every day.
Indeed, in order to achieve success in his career, personal life and simply survive, he needs to process an unrealistically large amount of information, win competition from exactly the same ambitious personalities, solve a lot of problems and tasks.
In general, it is sometimes quite difficult to stop and relax, to enjoy life, even on legal weekends and during non-working hours. Due to deadlines, the daily routine gets off, and a person can simply forget to eat, not to mention getting a good night’s sleep.
Naturally, not being able to recover for a certain period of time, the body has no choice but to use reserve resources, which, in theory, should have ensured its normal functioning.
That is, by doing overtime work, we, it turns out, take «borrowed» from our body, sacrificing our own health.
Psychological trauma
Traumatic events provoke painful emotional experiences, and subsequently somatization, that is, withdrawal into the disease, when various physiological symptoms and unpleasant sensations appear.
Children are exposed to neurosis in a family where the authoritarian style of education prevails. The need to constantly suppress your desires leads to a complete loss of interest. The meaning in it disappears, since tough parents still do not allow him to be satisfied.
Conflict situations, for example, with peers, when a child is bullied and does not receive support from adults, are also traumatic.
Features of personality
Impressive and vulnerable natures are at risk of mental disorders, among which there is asthenia.
They are overly sensitive, which is why, at the slightest difficulty and stress on the nervous system, they experience tremendous stress, which in other people makes itself felt with quite serious shocks.
Watching a movie with scenes of violence can deprive him of peace and sleep. What can we say about all the dangers and problems that each of us face every day on the path of life.
Focus on results
Regardless of what events a person is preparing for, if he ignores changes in his state of health, fatigue, and so on, concentrating only on the result, he risks “earning” neurasthenia for himself.
After all, he does not receive any pleasure from the process, but only stubbornly goes towards his goal, courageously overcoming obstacles. Usually, having achieved what he wants, he is disappointed, since the satisfaction is short, it is replaced by disappointment.
So much effort has been spent, stress has been sustained, and in the end the result is not as beautiful as it was previously dreamed of.
For example, people can be exhausted after getting married, traveling abroad, buying a car, or moving into a new home.
In theory, these are events that should make you happy, but in the end lead to depression. Also, those around him add fuel to the fire, claiming that such a person is simply “mad with fat”, everything turned out fine for her, but for some reason she suffers.
With children, things are exactly the same. Moving to a new school, participating in competitions, and even winning them can be detrimental to health, both physical and mental.
Additional factors
Adverse factors that may affect the development of astheno-neurotic syndrome:
- The presence of chronic infections in the body, the consequences of an acute respiratory viral infection or a cold.
- Leading an unhealthy lifestyle. That is, smoking, drinking alcohol, drugs, malnutrition, and so on.
- Craniocerebral injury.
- Disorders in the endocrine system.
- Hypoxia (oxygen starvation) during childbirth or during pregnancy.
- To the question of whether this syndrome is inherited. Unfortunately yes. There is a high probability of “acquiring” it if one of the close people in the family has encountered it at least once in their life.
- A number of diseases that lead to the depletion of body systems. For example, diabetes, circulatory problems, hypotension, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and so on.
- Lack of vitamins and minerals in the body.
- Compliance with strict diets.
Treatment
Astheno-neurotic syndrome must be treated, and by specialists. Because it doesn’t go away on its own.
You can read the recommendations in this article, but use them only as additional methods to the main treatment prescribed by a neurologist in order to speed up the healing process and strengthen the result.
Therefore, as soon as you notice the first signs of neurasthenia, go to see a psychotherapist, if the condition worsens, he will redirect you directly to a medical facility.
Taking a vacation and hoping that you will recover in a short period of time is pointless. Because no matter how much time you spend in bed doing nothing, you will not gain strength.
At such a moment, a colossal amount of energy goes to waste, for example, into anxiety. And you lie, on the one hand, seemingly doing nothing, and on the other, you are doing hard work, which is invisible at first glance.
Usually, antidepressants and tranquilizers are prescribed as a therapy for a neurotic syndrome in adults.
This helps to relax the nervous system, normalize the mood and restore the taste for life, filling it with other emotions, in addition to anxiety and despondency.
Herbal preparations (drugs based on herbal extracts), nootropics are also used to improve cognitive processes and increase brain resistance to stress.
There are also anti-asthenic drugs, they have a positive effect on performance, increasing activity and reducing anxiety.
A visit to the doctor is necessary to confirm or refute the diagnosis. In addition, the above drugs are not available without a prescription, and with self-medication there is a high risk of worsening health due to an overdose.
Therefore, be sure to consult with a specialist before you decide to go on the warpath with asthenia.
Recommendations
- Optimize your work and leisure schedule. If you feel a surge of energy, but the end of the week has come — spend the weekend in pleasure, let your nervous system relax.
- Give up nicotine, alcohol, control the amount of coffee and chocolate.
- It is extremely important to play sports, any physical activity will do. The main thing is not to force yourself to do what you do not like. In this case, there will be no benefit from such training, at least for the nervous system. Swimming, yoga, and meditation are best for preventing or combating neurosis and depression.
- Experts recommend visiting sanatoriums. Physiotherapy, physiotherapy exercises and various specific procedures allow you to restore resources, normalize the functioning of various body systems.
- It is important to periodically visit a psychotherapist in order to maintain psycho-emotional hygiene. Timely support and assistance will help maintain peace of mind without harming the psyche.
Completion
And that’s all for today, dear readers! Be attentive to yourself and your well-being, mood.
Because some of the symptoms of complex disorders at first seem insignificant, but later cause a lot of trouble. For example, against the background of exhaustion, both phobias and depression can begin.
In our society, the stereotype still prevails that only those who are unable to cope with their problems on their own receive the help of psychotherapists and psychiatrists.
And they just do nothing, waiting for the condition to improve on its own, just by the power of thought and full employment so that there is no time to think about what upsets and so on.
Only with asthenia, this method does not work, and does more harm than good. So be sure to check out the article on how to get rid of the negative effects of stress.
Happiness to you, peace of mind and health!
The material was prepared by a psychologist, Gestalt therapist, Zhuravina Alina